


Last Dance

by LNora



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Dancing, F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:20:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27798370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LNora/pseuds/LNora
Summary: “Always thought my final fight was gonna be on a big battlefield, not in the bedroom of my enemy.” This time they both laugh, filling the room with noise that drowns out the voices from outside the door.
Relationships: Hornet & Lace (Hollow Knight), Hornet/Lace (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 47





	Last Dance

**Author's Note:**

> This was something i wrote as a warmup before i had to go write a bigger fic, so it was written over the span of 5 months so this is probably REALLY BAD but WHATEVER

“Do you ever consider the consequences of….. Any of your actions? Ever?” Lace’s voice echoes through the room, the tall ceiling causing her complaints to bounce between the walls. Hornet would be incredibly annoyed if not for the fact that, deep down, she knew that Lace had some truth to her words. If not for the spider’s impulsive thinking and little to no caution, they wouldn’t be in the situation.

“Those are some mighty words from you, Lace,” Hornet walks up to the nearest piece of furniture, a cushioned chair, and pushes it towards the closed doors. She can still hear the echo from the hasty slam, a panicked Lace and Hornet closing a heavy stone door as quickly as possible. From the other side, she hears muffled slams, screams and bone slamming against the walls.

“You wouldn’t be here if not for your need to be heroic at any turn,” Hornet continues, looking at Lace from the corner of her eye open her mouth, and then close it.

“That’s a lie and we both know it, now you’re just trying to blame me instead of admitting that taking on an entire cult isn’t your greatest feat.”

Lace seems to understand what the spider’s doing and starts grabbing heavy furniture around the room, pushing it towards Hornet and the door.

A few minutes of pushing furniture towards the door, stacking chairs and a bed towards the stone gate, Hornet stands beside Lace, looking over their defenses. The spider turns, looks around the room.

“Why aren’t there any windows here?” She observes, walking closer to the lily white walls, looking for somewhere to escape through. The walls have faint cracks in them, but nothing big enough to escape through.

“Why do you think? Clearly the person who lived here wasn’t meant to escape,” Lace retorts, still standing by the door, whilst glancing in the other’s direction.

Hornet runs her hand along one of the cracks, thinking up ways to escape the hoard of angry cult followers.

“It seems they escaped though, as there is no one here and all the furniture is covered in dust.”

“Yeah.”

Hornet looks over her shoulder and sees Lace approach the door, slide down against the side of the pushed up bed and place her pin down next to her. The spider lets go of the wall, letting her arm rest by her side. She approaches Lace, sitting down next to her, still a few feet apart.

Silence.

  
“Notice how the bed only has three legs?” Lace suddenly says, not tearing her gaze from the middle of the room. She doesn’t wait for Hornet to respond and continues talking.

“I used it to break the door hinges, see?” she raises her hand, pointing at the sides of the door. Hornet follows the white bug’s hand, looking towards the hinges.

“They seem to have replaced them now, that’s why we’re still living. Lucky us,” Lace drops her hand and sighs, pulling up her knees towards her face and hugging her legs. Hornet sees what she means, two of the hinges on the right door are a slightly shinier gold, the other’s duller, not as reflective.

“This was your room?”

“Room? This was my prison. The fact that I got out is nothing short of a miracle,” Lace turns her head away from Hornet, looking anywhere else than the other bug, avoiding any more conversation about herself.

The spider drops her needle, leaning it against the bed and sprawls out her legs on the floor. Raises her left leg and rests her hand on her knee.

“Since you spent so much time in this room, do you know any other ways to escape?” She asks, looking over at Lace. She hears the white bug laugh, then sees her sit up properly, resting her head on the side of the bed.

“There’s a reason why I broke down the door and not the wall, little spider. They may have cracks in them, but we’re not getting through them no matter how hard we try.”

Hornet chuckles and smiles to herself.

“Always thought my final fight was gonna be on a big battlefield, not in the bedroom of my enemy.” This time they both laugh, filling the room with noise that drowns out the voices from outside the door.

“Still consider me your bitter rival, huh?” Lace says, the smile obvious in her tone.

“The day you stop attempting to murder me, you’ll be promoted to ‘acquaintance’,” Hornet playfully says, chuckling.

“Guess we’ll just have to be enemies forever then, spiderling. Attempting to end your life is the highlight of my day!”

“Too bad you won't be the one to do it, then.”

Lace remains quiet. It takes a few seconds for her to speak again.

“Isn’t this a sad end for the princess of Hallownest?”

Hornet remains still, staring at the wall with a blank look. “Doesn’t matter much, really. Nothing would change even if I don’t survived this. The flower’s by my mother’s grave might start wilting, but that's about it,” she sighs, thinking about the white bloom she’d been planting in the beast’s den.

“You don't think those flowers are worth living for?”

“Honestly? I think those flowers are slowly driving me mad. Mourning someone I never knew isn’t doing me good, no matter how much I try to tell myself it is. Guess some part of me just feels guilty about it.”

Those white flowers flooding her mother’s resting place, that she’d planted after the infection was cured, never brought her peace of mind. No matter how many flowers she brought, they could never quell the small bit of guilt she felt.

“Let’s hope someone comes and brings us flowers after this. I’ll be incredibly livid if I have to die in the worst place in this entire kingdom, only to not have someone decorate my grave with beautiful flowers,” Lace exclaims, gesturing around with her arms. Hornet laughs at Lace’s antics, finding humour in her twisted optimism.

“Yeah, let’s hope for that,” Hornet smiles and rests her head against the frame of the bed, letting her eyes close.

Suddenly, jerked out of her seconds of rest, Hornet hears metal clatter against the stone floor. She opens her eyes to see Lace, slowly standing up, her pin bouncing against the ground.

“Did I startle you?” the white bug smiles, a cheeky grin, almost mocking.

“Are you about to attempt an end on my sad existence? Or are you getting up for a completely unrelated thing?”

“Hah! Even I wouldn’t attempt to kill an honorable rival in their sleep. No, I was gonna ask you-” She stands tall, dusting off her clothes, then turning to Hornet and holding out her hand. “-if you’d care to dance with me?”

The spider’s mouth falls open.

“What?”

“Y’know… A dance? Do you not know what dancing is?” Lace responds, frowning and raising an eyebrow.

“No, no,” Hornet waves her hands, flustered and embarrassed, “I know what dancing is, I was just- why now?”

“Why not? We’re probably not gonna get out of here, so this might be the last time I’ll get to ask anyone,” Lace shrugs, still holding her hand up.

The spider thinks for a split second, before sighing and taking the other’s hand.

“Alright then.”

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

“You are absolutely hilarious, did you know?”

“Ah, sarcasm; the cowards lie.”

Hornet puts her free hand, the one that isn’t being held by Lace, on the white bugs hip, as Lace moves her hand to her shoulder.

“I don’t need to tell you how to dance, right?”

“I’m the heir to a kingdom, dancing is one of many skills,” Hornet snaps back, slowly starting to waltz around.

“One, two, three, there we go, one, two- look at that, you’re doing it!” Lace fakes surprise.

“Har har, your mocking will get us nowhere,” the spider says, slowly speeding up their dancing. Slowly, Lace’s counting turns into humming, then turns into a song. A three beat song, a waltz, about bells and lords, oppresive queens and haunting songs. Maybe it was a lullaby, something sung to the children of Pharloom before they head to bed, Hornet wasn’t sure. All she knew is she enjoyed listening to Lace sing it.

“A lullaby?” Hornet asks, raising their hands and twirling Lace around her.

“I thought it’d be fitting,” she replies.

“Morbid.”

“Quite a bit, yes,” Lace turns back around, facing Hornet, and continues their waltz.

Lace resumes her quiet singing as they twirl once more, take a few steps, one to the left, two to the right, followed by another twirl.

“Thanks,” Lace speaks up after a while, a few seconds after finishing her song. “This might be weird, but it…. Means a lot to me. I used to be scared of dying alone, so this helps.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand why it does, but I’m glad you’re feeling alright.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Anytime.”

One last bang, and then Hornet could hear the doors slam against the marble floors.


End file.
